On the way back from the Clapham vigil last night, where women had silently cried in front of rows of police officers, a man made grim kissing gestures at me and my flatmate on the tube and laughed when we looked scared. Everything is connected.
just had a girl message me on a tutoring platform offering to pay me triple my fee if I sit an IB exam for her. ngl I’m actually quite vexed that people a) have the cheek to offer this and b) actually accept offers like that. anyway drinks on me
Just realised that on a job application I had written that I was at Kerrang! magazine when Meatloaf died. It was Lemmy from Motorhead. Meatloaf is still alive. anyway if anyone wants to hire me
thinking about 2009, the year my twin and I broke into our Christmas presents two months early and secretly played Mario on our DS Lites every night, then had to act surprised on Xmas day when we opened it. we maintained a twelve year pact of silence. trust me at your peril
In an English GCSE tutoring lesson just now, three kids collectively decided to pretend there was a technical issue by typing error messages onscreen. The ruse was foiled when they couldn’t spell “malfunction” I -
Last month, virtual “gang rapes” took place in the Metaverse. Now will cyberspace and gaming - where social contracts disintegrate - get their reckoning?
‘In a world where players can do almost exactly as they want, why do men keep choosing to rape?’
Video games reveal the darkest fantasies of teenage boys, writes
@poppy_sowerby
: 👇
Smoking, coke, negroni spagliatos: these are carnations, pearls or a tome in an Early Modern portrait. Whether they are truly used by the sitter is beside the point: they simply gesture towards coveted attributes (betrothal, chastity, learnedness) and so function as pure symbols.
‘The cigarette is so irrevocably a cinematic totem — standing in variously for a gun, a penis, a poison, a panacea.’
The Gen Z smoking trend is an empty aesthetic, writes
@poppy_sowerby
:👇
Shameless plug for my guest appearance on the lovely
@meganekenyon
’s iconic podcast The Cheese Plant! Worth listening to just for the moment when Megan realises she’s drowned her herb garden. 🎧🪴
In the latest episode of The Cheese Plant I am joined by
@poppy_sowerby
to discuss this week's (mostly) positive headlines! We discuss the Game Stop saga, unfortunate gardening exploits, and getting dressed up to go and get the vaccine. Do tune in! 😎
The Sun has taken my article () and republished it without giving me any notice or credit!
Ironically, I was criticising the over-representation of Gregs compared to women - and they’ve given a Greg all the credit for my work.
“If we can regain our confidence, we will find that we have the power to influence how the future turns out.” Usually
#adamcurtis
films end in a web of crushing ironies, but this seems different. Sober tweet from me, I’ll go back to my gags now
Right now, Britons are scanning livestreams for suspicious-looking palm trees and offering their Labradors up as detectives. The search for Jay Slater is in its eighth day, but have we all lost our minds? I ask how Conspiracy Brain is upending the bleak banality of human tragedy.
Jet2 flight or socially conscious train? All-inclusive or “local delicacies”? We tell ourselves that going on holiday is about escapism, but maybe it’s a rehearsal of all our most firmly held snobberies. Not at all related to having had to cancel a holiday this week. 😔
nothing brings out the nastier sides of my character than competing with other girls who look vaguely like me for slightly crap New Look miniskirts in charity shops. move bitch
Somewhere in the world is a massive factory exclusively filled with these “argyle print” v-neck sets, which are not only available on every single fast fashion website there is, but also in my own bloody wardrobe. The only thing woollen about this fit is me, because I’m a SHEEP
Concern about the impact of transplant staff being diverted to Covid efforts in Ireland, as the country falls in its EU ranking for organ donation
One patient, who was first put on the waiting list for a kidney transplant 2 years ago, has been told she could wait another 5 years
at 7:10pm the cardboard set collapses, enter Claudia and Tess stage right as a glitter ball descends. Tonight Boris is doing the cha-cha with Anton du Beke,
sign sign sign!! it takes ten seconds and just IMAGINE if the government *did something* about sexual violence and we didn’t just accept r*pe culture as part of the reality of being a woman. <3
‘I know of a few insufferable “witches” — inevitably girls with tarot tattoos and ketamine habits — who appropriate a chic new brand of paganism.’
The astrology addicts are an irritating cliché, writes
@poppy_sowerby
: 👇
@JamesFlanderss
@JoannaMLonergan
not to pile on here but I do think it’s a bit sly to be quibbling with this particular thing in the context of the immense grief and shock happening rn
I’m worried that when I finally see my friends again it’ll be like that episode of Sex and the City where a pregnant woman tries to do a striptease at a party to relive her youth and is sent back to Connecticut in a taxi
are you paying rent on a flat/house that’s empty because you went home over Xmas and couldn’t come back? considering a rent strike/struggling to pay? dm me
#journorequest
:)
So thrilled with this brilliant brilliant review in TheatreReviews by
@poppy_sowerby
.
"The only downside was being subjected to the belly laughs of an entire, uplifted, room."
@JamesFlanderss
@JoannaMLonergan
yes but everyday harassment is very much a symptom and keystone of rape culture; trying to dismiss that, from the perspective of every woman I know who’s dealt with this, seems a bit wet. just my thoughts 💭
thought for the day: why do characters in teen movies have to wear thick eyeliner and waistcoats to “rock concerts”? and side fringes?? and VO5!? like it’s not how they normally dress but they dress like that for the occasion???
‘These “men” can probe you, tear you open, batter you about — but never chastise, patronise or lead you on.’
Is this what women really want? Read
@poppy_sowerby
on monster smut: 👇
found an old business card for a ‘holistic hairdresser’ in a secondhand book and I have questions.. like, “a short back and sides and a palm reading pls Alison thanks”
In what is my favourite piece I’ve ever written, I wrote an essay about all-girls schools, their feral warmth and chaos, and growing up as good little misogynists for
@The_Fence_Mag
@nationalrailenq
@GWRHelp
I’m stuck with two mortal enemies on a train from Reading, any news on when Paddington will reopen? Cannot express how much I want to escape these people thotz and prayers 🙏
@jessepengting
@womacckk
Do you think Gen Z is more nostalgic than the generations before it? (In terms of fashion, music, film etc) Has the chaos of modernity driven teens to imagine happier pasts?
Also *please* feel free to dm me with any more thoughts on this, so I can pick ya brains!
#JournoRequest
*this*!
@chanajoffewalt
on how the New York Board of Education has de facto resisted desegregating its schools since the fifties. Excellent on the cycle of white guilt, empty action and passivity.